This Open Access book analyses the interplay between governing,
evaluation and knowledge with an empirical focus on Swedish higher
education. It investigates the origins, logics, and mechanisms of
evaluation and quality assurance reforms and their dynamic interactions
with institutional, national and European policy contexts. The chapters
report findings from extensive empirical studies that offer detailed
insight into the work of governing in higher education, by giving voice
to actors at various levels and positions including the ministry,
national agency and University employees. Central themes include the
influence of European policy, changing system designs, media relations
and quality assurance enactments in University institutions. The book
also explores the ways in which an emerging professional cadre, labelled
qualocrats, enacts and mediates evaluation and quality assurance policy
and practice. Taken together, the expanding evaluation machinery in
Swedish higher education highlights the pivotal role of knowledge as a
governing resource, and points to special features of evaluation as a
particular form of practice that makes knowledge work for governing.